Creating a world-class safety culture requires buy-in from all levels of any organization.  And as much as we’d like to believe safety is always the number one priority, this isn’t always the case.  However, some animals in the natural world don’t have the luxury of putting safety second.

There’s one animal that should never have survived at all but, in fact, thrives in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments because of a fantastic safety culture and an amazing ability to co-operate…The Meerkat.

These furry little creatures use all the same traits as successful teams in the human world to survive deadly snakes, birds of prey and rock monitors in the deserts of Namibia. Meerkats share responsibility for safety and have adopted a system of interdependence, ensuring all members of the team (or mob) are always looking out for each other, both at work and at play. Their success and well-being relies on a few key elements:

• Communication

• Co-operation

• Instinct

• Interdependence

While meerkats make superb team players, there’s another, much bigger group of animals that have been using natural leadership skills to survive for thousands of years in almost every extreme environment.  Elephant groups are led by truly exceptional example from their leaders, matriarchs, who are regarded as the world best natural leaders.

The matriarch makes many of the decisions for the group’s wellbeing, however, any member of the group can share an opinion which the matriarch may follow. Her leadership is based on experience and wisdom but also on the ability to listen to other group members – The matriarch oversees a just culture.

An important trait of elephant leadership is bravery. A herd will always defend a fallen member. During drought it takes a brave leader to lead the herd out of the secure wildlife reserve in search of water. Matriarchs are described as respectful, knowledgeable leaders with compassion, integrity and clear boundaries. Elephants are one of a handful of animals that exhibit a degree of self-awareness. They are also unique in their reaction to the death of their own herd members and will often revisit the remains of their loved ones. Similarly matriarchs from different herds will pay respects to the matriarch of another herd.

Essentially, elephant leaders display all the best leadership qualities -

• Pragmatic Empathy

• Sharing A Vision

• Respect

• Consistency

• Leadership By Example

• Communication

• Evolution

In the workplace, the Giants of Leadership approach acts as a powerful training tool to support any organisation commited to achieving a world class safety culture.  The message exposes how an organisation’s cultural agenda isn’t always set by its supervisors and managers but often by what we might refer to as cultural leaders.  A cultural leader might be a popular employee on the shopfloor or a mid-level manager who’s built up a good rapport with colleagues across the board.  Giants of Leadership encourages these people to take responsibility for the wellbeing of their colleagues, teams and ultimately their organisation.  By setting the right tone with leaders, an improved culture follows and this allows for safe behaviours and best practices to follow suit.

Meerkats and Elephants are fantastic advocates of safety and are an inspiring and memorable way to communicate with trainees within every part of an organisation. Lattitude have developed two, full programmes which take the concepts outlined here to the next level, for out-of-the-box use in the training room or development and integration into a larger initiative.

All For One – The Meerkat Way deals with the challenges of teamwork and communication in building an interdependent culture in the worlkplace. Giants of Leadership – The Nature of Safety uses Elephants to communicate the need for strong, pragmatic leadership in safety and why it is the secret ingredient of every great safety culture. Both programs include breathtaking and unforgettable imagery, featuring the latest BBC Wildlife and BBC Nature footage of animals in their natural environments, capturing the imagination of every audience.

For more information and details of availability, please call us on 01435 831500 or e-mail info@lattitudeproductions.co.uk

View more info:

All For One – The Meerkat Way

Giants of Leadership – The Nature of Safety